"I am a Chinese naval escort formation. If you need help, please call me on Channel 16." This notice, broadcast in both Chinese and English, has been reverberating in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters for 15 years.
The 23rd batch of convoy formation ships of the Chinese Navy carry out navigation replenishment (photographed on April 25, 2016). Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Qian Hong)
On December 26, 2008, the Chinese Navy sent convoys to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters for the first time. Over the past 15 years, the Chinese Navy has sent 45 convoy formations, more than 150 sub ships, and more than 35000 officers and men to carry out escort missions, and has safely escorted more than 1600 batches of 7200 Chinese and foreign ships, including 12 World Food Program ships.
The north of Socotra Island and the south mouth of the Mander Strait are the meeting points of the Chinese navy's escort ships and the protected ships, which are hundreds of nautical miles apart. For many years, the Chinese Navy's escort formation has been mainly engaged in continuous navigation between these two points, round the clock, and escorting Chinese and foreign ships.
The 26th convoy formation of the Chinese Navy sailed through the Suez Canal (photographed on September 2, 2017). Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Lin Jian)
The 44th escort mission was the fifth one attended by Ma Liang, the captain of Jingzhou Ship. When he first carried out the escort mission in 2009, pirates in the Gulf of Aden appeared several times a month. Today, the commercial ships on the Gulf of Aden are still busy, but pirates are increasingly rare.
Over the years, the sea area, target objects and attack methods of piracy activities have been constantly changing, and the naval escort formation has constantly improved and innovated the escort organization and command mode.
The escort area continues to expand. Each group of formation will extend the escort area to hundreds or even thousands of nautical miles according to the meteorological characteristics of the sea area and the situation of piracy activities to ensure the safety of the protected ships.
The 35th convoy of the Chinese Navy carried out targeted anti piracy training (photographed on May 2, 2020). Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Jiang Xia)
In June 2009, Huangshan Ship, the second group of convoy formation, escorted ships into the Mande Strait for the first time, and successfully repelled pirate ships.
In May 2017, the 26th escort fleet, Yangzhou Ship, sent special forces to provide escort for the Chinese marine scientific research ship Xiangyanghong 10 to carry out marine scientific investigation in the northwest Indian Ocean.
The special operations crew of Yueyang Ship of the 40th convoy formation of the Chinese Navy observed and guarded during the convoy (photographed on April 2, 2022). Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Tang Wen)
The escort mode has been constantly innovated. From accompanying convoy, relay convoy, regional convoy, extended convoy, to ship interception and external force, small boat verification and drive away, helicopter aerial deterrence, special operations team rescue, and then to ship, ship, and aircraft integration and coordination, flexible and innovative methods are used according to different characteristics of the force to optimize the efficiency of force use.
The escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia has become a major military practice of the People's Navy, which has been deployed for the longest time, deployed the largest number of troops and carried out the widest range of activities overseas to safeguard national strategic interests and fulfill the obligations of major powers since its establishment.
Looking through the escort chronicles over the years, it can be found that the tasks of the escort formation are diverse. In addition to escort, they also regularly carry out joint exercises with foreign navies, send officers to each other for observation on ships, and carry out joint escort, anti piracy, and international humanitarian rescue drills with dozens of countries escorting ships.
The protected vessel and Chinese oceangoing fishing boat "Haixin 29" hung banners with words such as "Long live the motherland" and "Long live the people's navy" (photographed on June 4, 2022). Xinhua News Agency (Photographed by Yang Jie)
Since the third group of escort formation and the Russian navy carried out the joint exercise of "Peace Blue Shield 2009", the Chinese navy has taken the opportunity of escort to gradually establish a new mechanism to organize friendly visits to ships and participate in joint exercises with foreign forces, and actively exchange and cooperate with foreign forces.
Many ships have participated in escort, visit and joint performance more than once. The escort opened a window to show the world that the Chinese navy is a peaceful force.
In the spring of 2011, the seventh fleet of Xuzhou warships successfully completed the task of escorting ships to evacuate our personnel in Libya. This is the first time that a Chinese warship has participated in evacuating civilians in a humanitarian crisis.
The escorted ship hung a banner of "Thank you for the Chinese Navy's escort" and waved to the 42nd convoy formation of the Chinese Navy (photographed on November 5, 2022). Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Ma Yubin)
In the spring of 2015, when the civil war broke out in Yemen, the 19th convoy team rushed to Yemen in an emergency and evacuated 683 Chinese compatriots and 279 foreign citizens from 15 countries in five batches.
In April 2023, the 43rd convoy fleet Nanning Ship and Weishan Lake Ship went to Sudan to evacuate overseas Chinese. In addition to 272 Chinese citizens, 221 people from Pakistan, Brazil and other countries were evacuated in the second batch.
In the past 15 years, no matter how the ships, personnel and modes change, the original intention of the Chinese navy to maintain regional security and stability has never changed. Many foreign merchant ships even came from the "internationally recommended corridor" and applied to join the escort team of the Chinese Navy to seek protection.
Urumqi and Dongping Lake ships of the 45th convoy formation of the Chinese Navy escorted Chinese fishing boats (photographed on October 20, 2023). Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Wang Yuanyuan)
With the rapid development of the naval equipment system, the number of ocean going supply ships has increased significantly, and their performance has also improved a lot, with the continuous upgrading of support capabilities. Today, with the help of technology and equipment, even if the combat ships do not dock, they can basically achieve "every day, every day, every meal".
In the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, there are few earth shaking artillery, but there are often soul stirring battles. Ocean escort, the test is longer than the voyage. In the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, where there are many masts, more than 5400 days of fighting against wind and waves, 45 groups of convoy formation relay their guard. The Chinese navy convoy formation, which raises the five-star red flag, wrote a shining "Chinese answer sheet" on the Dark Blue Channel. (Li Yun, Mo Xiaoliang, Sun Fei)
Source: Xinhua News Agency 09:00, December 27, 2023
(Editor in charge: Chen Yue, Hu Yongqiu)
